


there's broken glass from broken pieces

by berried



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, References to Infertility, References to Stephanie's pregnancy, Relationship Study, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, Tim Drake is Red Robin, past pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:27:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23200108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berried/pseuds/berried
Summary: they're going to get intimate, they're going to do it, and they are dating again. her throat closes up when his fingers brush against the dime-sized scars that decorate her stomach. he loves her though, he always will.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	there's broken glass from broken pieces

**Author's Note:**

> rated m mostly because it deals with steph's torture at the hands of black mask, and that implies a whole lot of things that aren't Teen friendly etc. title from bloodstains by 100gecs.

By "bat-time", it's late at night -- but for normal people the sun seeping through the curtains of Stephanie's room means that it's time to get up. For her, for her aching muscles, for the nasty bruise that's slowly forming on her lower back to really get to work on yellowing her skin. It means that it's time for her to get at least two hours of sleep before she has to get to her tutoring gig across town. It's for some kid who attends Gotham High who is failing French, the parents always pay her way higher than they need to.

( It's probably because the kid is really shitty at French and Steph can constantly tell the dad is trying to look down her shirt. Fucking gross. )

It also, apparently means, that Tim Drake is in your bed, you two adjusting to the new "back together, no secrets" thing that you're trying out, because you're both adults now. You both have dated other people, and have both learned that no matter what, honesty is most important. And they're both determined to make it work this time, so they're both trying to be honest with each other about everything.

( Cass was at Harper's tonight, it was the only reason Tim was here like this. They hadn't told any of the family, but she knew that when everyone was a detective, they all knew anyway. )

Even though Tim is in her bed, they aren't doing  _ anything _ . They had started -- Steph had stepped out of her shower with her towel tugged tightly around her body and Tim had just entered her room, and was in the process of peeling off his own uniform. They had started. They had kissed, and they had touched. They  _ had _ started.

And then, when the towel was removed, Sephanie found herself freezing up. And now they were here.

Tim Drake was in her bed, and the way that she was laying, had the towel bunching up, pressing against where that bruise was forming. He was settled between her legs, not doing what she had only experienced with him really once before,  _ not that _ . Instead, his lips were pressed against her, tracing different pieces of skin that decorated her chest. There wasn't the  _ heat _ behind it, but it was warm. It was gentle. It was caring.

It was almost a good enough distraction from the fact that Tim was kissing the scars on her skin. The ones that she had received from what she counted as the three worst days of her life.

She had once imagined this happening -- maybe not with Tim, but with someone. She had imagined it with someone who would kiss her, and tell her that she was perfect, and that they loved her no matter what.

Instead, the first time she had ever been with someone -- a guy she had shared Statistics for Non-STEM majors with -- he had taken one look at her skin and something came up. They had been dating for three months, and the next time he saw her on campus, he didn't even so much as look at her. It was fine, she didn't have time to date  _ anyway _ . BG took up most of her free time, so it didn't matter.

( That was actually the excuse she had given Tim when they had had a 'talk' about dating. That she didn't have time. )

This wasn't the first time that he had seen her scars. Everyone in the 'family' had seen them -- besides the fact that Stephanie hadn't been shy about them when they were at the manor, in the cave. They all had scars, and nine out of ten times they knew where they all came from. They knew where Damian's -- the smooth one on his stomach that matched the one on his back -- came from. They knew what the long one that formed a Y down Jason's center came from. When they saw it, they all knew what the one scar on Barbara's front came from.

  
They all knew where the scars that decorated Stephanie's midsection, jagged edges and all, came from.   


( That didn't mean that they acknowledged or talked about it with anyone. They all knew that Damian had been killed, stabbed by his own clone. They all knew that Jason had been  _ dissected _ , like he was a type of science experiment. They all knew Barbara had been shot by a mad man, who had done it just to mess with her father. And they all knew that Stephanie had met with Black Mask.

They never talked about it. They never acknowledged it. But they had all caught them  _ staring _ . )

Maybe now, the fact that he was here, confronted with the scars, the memories of three days in hell, that he was taking his time. Becoming acquainted with each of them. He was going to have to if he and Stephanie were going to be intimate once again. 

It was because of that.

And totally not because Stephanie had tensed and apologized, and then told him that for the most part she can't really  _ feel _ a whole lot when it comes to her breasts -- so there wasn't a lot of need for foreplay in that area anyway.

"You're beautiful." It's the first thing Tim says since he's started his mission. He's got his lips on the small set of scars adjacent to her navel. Right, that's where Sionnis had decided that Stephanie's navel piercing should go.

( " _ Shouldn't girls your age be running around, getting their cute little belly button pierced and hiding it from their parents? Not running around with Bats _ ." He had mocked her about it, before offering to give her a belly button piercing himself. She had decided to focus on the pain of the piercing that her skin was absolutely going to reject when Sinois had dipped his tongue into the dip where her navel rested anyway.

When she got back from Africa, she had gotten a  _ real _ navel piercing. Cried when she took it out because she couldn't spare to look at it. )

"You're cheesy." Stephanie responded, afraid to look down at Tim. She wondered what it was like to only have been with the love of your life (her words) once before, and the second time you were  _ almost _ with them, their skin looked like this.

When his fingers traced along the faded five inch scar that sat at the bottom of her stomach -- the only neat scar. Just like the others it wasn't  _ really _ supposed to be there, but it was either way. She flinched slightly, her eyes trained on the ceiling above her.

"I can't have kids." Another lovely bombshell for her to drop on Tim. Whatever. She was sure that he needed to know at some point, either way.

"We can get a lot of pets. We can adopt." Tim doesn't miss a beat. He doesn't waver at the comment. He says  _ we _ and it makes Stephanie's heart do something similar to flips, though she's not sure what it is. She hadn't  _ actually _ considered that when she blurted it out. 

That telling him she couldn't have kids was something that they would deal with together -- if they made it to that point in their relationship. And the way that Tim responded, so fluidly, meant he  _ had _ thought about it. She knew Tim did think about her -- wanted to get back with her while she was still figuring things out, but having him actually voice it. Voice something like that.

Something that, in the back of her mind, sounded like a good idea. So, she said nothing -- having finally developed the filter that she knew would've saved her so much trouble when she was younger.

"You're beautiful." Tim mumbles against her skin once more, his lips are pressed against a tattoo on her skin. 

A  _ limenthis arthemis _ \-- the red spotted purple. A purple butterfly. It was cliche, being that girl who had a butterfly tattoo on her hip. Part of her hated that she had it, but it was supposed to stand for optimism. And hope. And butterflies themselves represented change.

It covered up the ugly mark that Sinois had branded her with. A skull burned into her skin. Marking her tan skin and making sure she never forgot. She had gotten it covered up as soon as she returned to Gotham. 

As Tim presses a kiss to the scar, and then just -- rests his head on her stomach. Stephanie momentarily thinks back to the thought she had had. Of someone loving her. Someone seeing the scars that marked her skin. Someone knowing of her torture, knowing of her story. Knowing all of it, and finding her beautiful.

Finding her beautiful even though she's got next to no feeling in her breasts. Someone who would, when she tells them that she can't have kids won't be upset about it. Someone,who knows that even though she  _ had _ a kid, she gave them up for adoption and they don't judge her for it.

"You're so beautiful." He repeats a third time.

She believes him this time. 

**Author's Note:**

> wowee, more self indulgent stephanie centric fic from me. i can't even pretend to be shocked.


End file.
